Bet some of you are going all "What happened to BROB? It's gone! Game over, man! We're screwed!"

Worry not, you can now find it on the main forum list as "Roleplaying and Quests", under Creative Forums, so in the same place as Creative Writing and Story Debates. You'll also find an OOC sub-forum there to keep things less cluttered as well.

“Standard fare is a hundred and forty,” Dalam began with his opening bid,

I snorted, “Standard fare for your full services is a hundred and forty. This is non-hazardous work, for that matter it’s not even you yourself I’m tasking. Thirty five for the full duration of the spell with the ring.”

“Thirty five!?” he roared in false outrage, “Safe work is half, not a quarter. And that ring has a great many prized protective qualities.” He argued, “How will I protect myself without it?”

“You work out of Union,” I deadpanned, “If someone manages to hit you with an enchantment that slips by the sentinels notice, then the odds of that trinket blocking them are about as good as me out dueling a Leshay blade master.”

“It’s still a layer of protection you are stripping from me,” He defended.

“Maybe if you used the blasted thing, I’d buy that,” I pointed out accusingly. “All it is to you is some merchandise you still haven’t managed to sell in spite of its ‘significant’ protective qualities.”

Louise shot me a look filled with all sorts of questions. Still she kept silent for now, apparently content to sit back and observe the situation.

Then again it could be that she was just tired enough to not want to go to the effort.

Dalam shook his head, “This is a strange land you’ve called me to. One you yourself do not know all the details of! Plenty of risks that might demand its use.”

I groaned, rubbing a hand into my face, already tired of this, and well, just plain tired. Louise wasn’t the only one who’d been staying up late.

Still… suddenly an idea struck me. Frankly I blame the mental fatigue I was under for not realizing it earlier.

I put on a sly smirk, as I removed my hand, “That’s right, this is a strange, foreign unknown land,” I drawled out carefully, “With strange, foreign, untouched, markets.”

Dalam paused.

“The magic styles of this land are completely different then what we are used to. Logically, their item craft is likewise, diverse. No one has ever reached this world, and if my theory is correct then no one else can.”

This time he twitched.

My face was now twisted into a grin, and not a friendly one, “I wonder just how much profit you could make trading wares between two entirely foreign markets…”

The djinni’s massive form tensed.

I shifted over to a polite, satisfied, and dare I say it? serpentine smile, “Thirty five will do, I’ll even throw in a polymorph spell.”

He started to speak, paused, then nodded, holding out his hand, “Would you also consider a small loan?”

Took the hand shaking it, with a nod, “Of course, I’ll even throw in a promise to call you in once a month at a small transport tax…”

Louise seemed very curious at this point, though she still kept quiet. I was frankly starting to grow a little concerned. It wasn’t like her to be silent this long.

He laughed. It was a deep rumbling sound, that you felt as much as heard, a mixture of joy and satisfaction, “You truly are a snake Levethix.” He shook his head, half scolding, half respectful. “Ten percent?”

I shrugged, “I was going to say twenty, but I think that might just be the dragon in me getting greedy. Let’s just cut the difference at fifteen.”

Louise shot me a look at that. My price was apparently ether too high, low, or just plain unconventional by the local customs then.

Interesting… I’d need to look into that.

“Fair enough,” the massive man nodded, pulling loose a small treasure box from his side pouch, an item nearly identical to my own, cracking the seal on it with a muttered word.

I watched as he fished through the various trinkets inside, my arcane senses flaring like a nose in a flower shop. Pulling loose the item in question, he eyed it for a moment, insuring it was the right one, he handed the ring over.

It was a small ornamental band, relatively plain with a simple decoration styled on a large kite shield. The metal itself was simple steel, though it paled to a more silver hue rippling in odd tones like someone hadn’t quite got the alloying process correct. Spiffy. I wasted no time sliding it on.

“My gold?” Dalam asked, eyebrow raised.

I nodded, “Just a moment, you have a bag ready?”

He grunted an acknowledgment, “Right here,” He patted his side, opening it up.

I wasted little time filling it, handing over each of the thirty five, slim, one pound bars of near completely pure gold, in a long practiced motion, noting Louise had snapped awake at the transaction.

“Any requests while I finish this up?” I asked, calling up a chunk of my magic to make with the spellwork.

“A normal haircut this time if you would please,” he replied with a mildly warning tone.

I grinned back at him, “Come on, you looked awesome with the afro and you know it.”

The pink haired girl mouthed ‘Afro?’ at me.

My grin widened, and I shot back a “Tell you later.”

He narrowed his eyes at me, “I looked ridiculous! My clients spent more time looking at my head then my wares!”

I waved it off, “Bah, anyone who bothered you about it probably wasn’t worth it. Anyone who seriously deals with maters of the arcane’s bound to see weirder things then that on a regular basis.”

“That doesn’t change the shear annoyance of being constantly asked about it, and the touching,” he stressed.

“Fine, fine, something simple. I haven’t been around long though so I can’t offer a wide variety,” I frowned, narrowing my eyes for a moment, then reached out and poked him in the chest “Polymorph.”

There was a slight dull flash of chaotic energies as Dalam’s massive form shifted down to a much smaller, though still tall and impressively built shape. Tanned skin, weathered from travel and exposure to the sun, sharp gray eyes, and a receding hairline kept sharp. His remaining hair almost seamlessly blended into the well kept beard I’d largely lifted from the headmaster.

Louise looked at him curiously, and waved a hand through the spot his arm once occupied, “You transformed him? Like you do?”

I nodded, “Same spell. Only works on willing subjects however. There is a slight trick to using it on someone less willing.”

The human shaped elemental looked down at himself and frowned, his clothing was relatively simple, I’d borrowed largely from the older students, and as such included a robe. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow, “local style?”

I shrugged, “The Country is run by its arcanists. I figured if you were planning on peddling enchanted goods…”

He gave me a sharp nod, “My thanks then. How long did you say this would last?”

“Little over half a day, after that your on your own… of course my services are always available for hire,” my grin was a tad predatory.

He rolled his eyes, before looking at Louise, “This is why wise merchants never deal with dragons. They’ll bleed every copper out of you.”

“I’m not that bad,” I defended in mock offense.

He rubbed his forehead “For a dragon? No, you’re not bad at all,” he agreed earnestly.

Louise seemed to get the message… which was important as I certainly didn’t.

“…Right,” I stated in utter deadpan, the classic defense for when you didn’t quite understand what was going on, “so you need some directions to the nearest town? I’ve not yet made a trip, but I’ve looked over the local maps…”

In D&D you can buy a one pound gold bar for fifty gold pieces, or sell one for that amount.

This dictates that a gold coin would be composed of approximately one fiftieth of a pound of gold (likely alloyed to other metals for strength).

That (little under 91 Grams)... sounds about right for a decent sized/weighted coin.

Still that alloying process eats up weight and volume. Hence it makes more sense for barter involving large scale transactions (IE trading in magic), to involve trade, gemstones, and solid bars of valuable metals.

Think the upper end of Fallout, you don't really use bottle caps to buy most of your stuff. They're more there to settle out the fine details of trade. Most of a transaction is offering one thing for another (IE five finely made steel swords for that horse).

In D&D you can buy a one pound gold bar for fifty gold pieces, or sell one for that amount.

This dictates that a gold coin would be composed of approximately one fiftieth of a pound of gold (likely alloyed to other metals for strength).

That (little under 91 Grams)... sounds about right for a decent sized/weighted coin.

Still that alloying process eats up weight and volume. Hence it makes more sense for barter involving large scale transactions (IE trading in magic), to involve trade, gemstones, and solid bars of valuable metals.

Think the upper end of Fallout, you don't really use bottle caps to buy most of your stuff. They're more there to settle out the fine details of trade. Most of a transaction is offering one thing for another (IE five finely made steel swords for that horse).

Click to expand...

good point, on the other hand, if both the bars and the coins are made of the same thing, does that not make the bars just larger denomination coins?

if by getting 50 gold coins, pressing them together you could get a makeshift "gold-bar" then is that not just another coin in its own right? (one with a value of 50 GP?)

like using a £50 note instead of paying in pound coins. (yes, pounds, because i'm a Englishman.)

In D&D you can buy a one pound gold bar for fifty gold pieces, or sell one for that amount.

This dictates that a gold coin would be composed of approximately one fiftieth of a pound of gold (likely alloyed to other metals for strength).

That (little under 91 Grams)... sounds about right for a decent sized/weighted coin.

Still that alloying process eats up weight and volume. Hence it makes more sense for barter involving large scale transactions (IE trading in magic), to involve trade, gemstones, and solid bars of valuable metals.

Think the upper end of Fallout, you don't really use bottle caps to buy most of your stuff. They're more there to settle out the fine details of trade. Most of a transaction is offering one thing for another (IE five finely made steel swords for that horse).